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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Human rights in Africa: the limited promise of liberalism
Author:Mutua, MakauISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:African Studies Review
Volume:51
Issue:1
Pages:17-39
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:human rights
liberalism
speeches (form)
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/african_studies_review/v051/51.1.mutua.pdf
Abstract:This article originally was presented as the M.K.O. Abiola Lecture at the African Studies Association 50th anniversary meeting in New York City in October 2007. The author argues that the limitations that curtail the ability of the human rights corpus to respond to Africa's crises are conceptual and normative. The first limitation is one of the idiom in which the rights discourse is formulated. The language of rights, which is central to liberalism, is fraught with limitations which could be detrimental to the project of transforming deeply distorted societies. Another problem of the liberal tradition, which has been inherited by the human rights movement, is its focus on individualism. This is a particularly serious problem in Africa, where group and community rights are deeply embedded in the cultures of peoples. Furthermore, the human rights movement's primary grounding and bias toward civil and political rights is one of the major weaknesses in the African postcolonial context. To be of utility to Africa, and fundamentally transform the continent's dire fortunes, human rights must address economic powerlessness and the scandalous international order. The author therefore proposes to reconstruct the liberal project and its human rights expression. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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